


April showers bring bloody flowers

by Obsidian_Bandit



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood, Character Death, Character Study, Emetophobia, Flowers, Hanahaki Disease, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Oma Kokichi Needs a Hug, Organs, Sad Ending, Sad Oma Kokichi, it shouldn’t be horrible but just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26898829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Obsidian_Bandit/pseuds/Obsidian_Bandit
Summary: Kokichi Ouma is many things. He is cruel to a degree. He is selfish and selfless in the same bounds. He is a liar. He is a leader. But above all, he is a scared, small, fragile boy.He hides it, he hides it well he thinks, hides behind the whiplash-inducing changes in emotion, behind an endless stream of lies that seems to sweep him up and drown him just as much as it drowns those around him.But there are some things even he can’t hide. Bloody flowers being one.Or Kokichi has hanahaki disease, takes place through chapter 5, though it kinda spoils chapter 6.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 130





	April showers bring bloody flowers

**Author's Note:**

> I can’t even explain how this fic came to be, but’s it here and I’m actually pretty happy with it. It’s my first time writing a Hanahaki disease fic, so hopefully I didn’t mess it up lmao.
> 
> Enjoy!

Kokichi Ouma is many things. He is cruel to a degree. He is selfish and selfless in the same bounds. He is a liar. He is a leader. But above all, he is a  _ scared, small, fragile boy.  _

He hides it, he hides it well he thinks, hides behind the whiplash-inducing changes in emotion, behind an endless stream of lies that seems to sweep him up and drown him just as much as it drowns those around him.

But there are some things even he can’t hide. Bloody flowers being one.

The dark blue petals sit heavy in his hand, and he can feel the stares of 15 other people burning into him. He knows they’re looking at him in disgust and shock, can feel it in the marrow of his bones, because after all who would’ve expected  _ him  _ of all people to be the one who falls in love with someone during a killing game?

“K-Kokichi are you…?” Kaede is the one who speaks up first, unsurprisingly.

“I’m… I’m fine. I just have to go to the… the bathroom,” Kokichi manages to get the words out, his voice cracking and raw, the shock he feels at seeing the flowers overpowering his usual need for a mask.

He turns and rushes away from the mess hall, and hides in his room for the rest of the day. No one comes to find him.

* * *

It steadily gets worse, the petals and blood coming more and more often until Kokichi finally resigns himself to die like this, in love with someone who he knows will never love him back. The object of his affection indirectly turning him into a bloody flower garden, his lungs a work of intricate modern art for all to see.

Then Rantaro dies. And suddenly he realizes he can’t die yet.

He fights in the trial, actively making even those who had pitied him turn against him, all so he could try and catch the person who had murdered one of them in cold blood. When people begin to suspect Shuichi he gets scared, if only for a moment, before he realizes it could never have been him; Shuichi is dedicated to justice and good, he’s an embodiment of all things right with this world, even if he is terrified of the truth. And doesn’t that just hurt?

In the end, they kill Kaede. He knows he should probably think Monokuma killed Kaede, but they were the ones who voted her guilty. They were the ones who condemned her to play such a tragic piece of music, they were the audience to her swinging body, lifeless and tragic.

And the moment she had died Kokichi felt the flowers wilt. He felt them curl up, felt them disappear as the tendrils unraveled themselves from his lungs, curling back into seeds. It left him gasping at the sensation, clutching at his scarf and hoping someone would try to help him.

No one did. No one came to him.

* * *

  
  


The flowers had left and Kokichi had devised a plan. A plan to do what Kaede couldn’t because she’d been too kind, because she’d cared too much for all of them. He’d stop the mastermind, and maybe everyone would hate him and maybe he’d have to die. But it was a small price to pay if they could leave in one piece.

* * *

To say Kokichi felt horrible when he coughed up the bloody, deep blue petals once again would be an understatement of monumental levels. This time he had been walking down the hall alone, and he came to a full stop realizing what this meant.

He looked around, head turning rapidly from side to side as if somehow the barren walls could give him an answer as to why this had to happen again, why once again he had to be taunted in such a painful way. Dropping the petals to the floor he took off at a run, trying desperately to find the one person he held above all others in this sick game, wanting to know who he’d lost to this time.

And when he finally saw Shuichi and Kaito laughing together, looking so carefree, he wanted to scream. But instead, he slowed to a walk and stubbornly passed the two, praying one of them would ask and maybe even be worried by the blood he was sure was staining his mouth and scarf.

Neither of them did. No one asked him anything.

* * *

This time the flowers seemed to be taking their time, almost as if they were afraid that once again they’d be forced away and their hard work would be for naught. Kokichi almost didn’t notice, too caught up in desperately trying to form a new plan to stop this game.

It’s easier this time around to try and hide it, but he isn’t surprised when Shuichi stops him in the hall to confront him.

“Kokichi, do you have Hanahaki?” He asks bluntly, eyes serious and almost afraid. Kokichi can’t imagine why, it’s not like his death would be that bad, at least it shouldn’t be in Shuichi’s eyes.

“I was  _ trying  _ to keep it a secret, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised Saihara-Chan figured it out,” Kokichi sighed internally and tried his best to act upbeat about the whole thing, no matter how much tighter the roots seemed to grip his lungs. “But don’t worry, it’s not contagious or anything and I have been cleaning up after myself. Can’t leave everything to mom now can we?”

“I know it isn’t contagious Kokichi,” Shuichi shook his head lightly, looking almost disappointed with how upbeat Kokichi was acting. It hurt. Then again, what about Shuichi didn’t hurt? “Do you maybe have an idea of who it is? I’ve heard some people were able to be cured once they seriously talked it all out, mayb-“

“Let me cut you off right there my dear Saihara-Chan. I know you think you’re helping and all but the only thing I can see is that you’re trying desperately to live up to everything Kaede was. Which is stupid, you know she wouldn’t have wanted that. And anyway I don’t want to talk to them, I’d rather die than have to have a serious conversation with the person I like, and I’m pretty sure they feel the same. No matter what they say otherwise.”

With that, Kokichi left, not able to bear seeing Shuichi’s face any longer. It was just too much to have to tell him  _ any  _ of this, especially after all the times Shuichi had blatanly ignored him.

Even as he walked away a part of him hoped that Shuichi would follow him, would persist so much that Kokichi would be forced to spill who it was.

He didn’t. No one followed him.

* * *

Ryoma was found dead in the piranha tank and Kokichi could help but feel happy it wasn’t Himiko. Ryoma had been such a loner that his death didn’t hurt them as much, Himiko’s would’ve destroyed them.

While everyone else investigated Kokichi started realizing that his lungs were getting worse, and he felt overworked to the point that he could hardly stay awake for longer than a couple of hours. But he kept working because he needed to get them out of this alive. Well, everyone but himself.

* * *

They held the trial and Kokichi could tell almost immediately how it would go. It obviously wasn’t Himiko, even she wasn’t  _ that  _ thick, and it was obvious to him that Kirumi was lying. Though about what he couldn’t say for sure.

In the end, he played up his lying shtick even more than he had last time, and he could tell everyone was buying into his plan, everyone believed him to be the evil they had to ban together to defeat, probably just as much as they believed Monokuma to be the same. 

Then they killed Kirumi and for just a moment he wanted to break his mask, to cry with the rest of them because even though he’d said it in jest Kirumi had felt like a sort of mother figure to him, always kind and caring. And in reality, he was only a child like the rest of them, scared to be next on the chopping block. But then he coughed and the blood and petals that collected in the folds of his scarf reminded him that he didn’t have time for that.

Still, he hoped that one of them would try to help him through his own grief. No one did. No one tried.

* * *

After Kirumi’s death, Kokichi could feel the flowers slowly beginning to retreat, as if ever so slowly that one person who never failed to give him butterflies was killing off the feelings he had felt for the astronaut. Kokichi surmised it was because Kaito was slowly falling for Maki and the one he himself loved didn’t want to come between them.

He wanted to be happy, but he couldn’t find it in himself to feel anything other than relief that now his job would be much easier.

* * *

Angie institutes some crazy student counsel, and Kokichi doesn’t bat an eye, he’s too busy planning, too busy  _ scheming,  _ placing clues and doubts in the minds of those around him, even when he knows, in the end, he’ll still be dead. He’ll still lose the game.

But then both Angie and Tenko end up dead and Kokichi feels bile rise up in his throat as the severity of the situation hits him: their numbers are beginning to fall quicker, and they’ll only continue to decrease if he doesn’t do something  _ fast.  _ He was without the time he’d been so sure he would have if everyone just listened to Kaede's final wish.

So he pretends to investigate closely, occasionally letting his mind wander to dream of a world in which he and the person he was head over heels for could’ve met some other way, and focused mainly on setting up the final pieces of his plan. The specifics he’s still struggling with, he can’t fully start this whole thing until the current killer is caught and the next motive is released, but by the time the investigation period is over he has a pretty good broad idea of what he has to do for this to work.

And of course, he wished that Shuichi would see through the lies he began to tell the people around him. But he didn’t, at least not as well as Kokichi had wanted him to.

* * *

The trial goes smoothly, for the most part. Of course, Himiko is a mess, but that was to be expected, and it hardly stopped Kokichi from playing his own role perfectly.

He was more focused on Shuichi the whole time than he’d have liked to admit, but it seemed as though he was truly embracing his role as the detective now, no longer afraid of the truth. And all it took was 6 people’s deaths and the threat of more to come.

In the end, Korekiyo was the one they murdered. Kokichi was glad of that, in his own twisted way, because it hadn’t hurt nearly as much as the other deaths had, sans Ryoma’s. Korekiyo had been strange, like him, and maybe under different circumstances, they could have been friends, but he was perceptive and Kokichi couldn’t afford to have someone who could see through him by his side, so he kept his distance.

Somewhere deep in him, he found himself wishing that he  _ had  _ become friends with Korekiyo if only so he  _ could  _ feel deep sadness at the thought of his death.

But he hadn’t, and he never would.

* * *

  
The only part of his plan that Kokichi looked forward to was playing games with Shuichi. It was the only part that didn’t make him think of how D.I.C.E. would disapprove, or of how it would hurt them all so much, or how it was just so in the end he could kill himself, or even of how if he didn’t do it perfectly correct his entire plan would fail and they would all die.

Playing games with Shuichi was just that, playing games with his detective so that he could gain his trust. Even if in the end it was to shatter it, it was probably the most innocent—naive even—part of his plan. In the end, it probably wouldn’t end in anyone’s death, besides his own of course, but that isn’t much of a loss.

The games were fun, light, and simple ones where every once in a while he could sneak in his true feelings, but hide them enough that he was sure Shuichi would never find out what he truly felt. His last game was the penultimate grande finale, the last moment he could allow himself to be trusted by the detective, and he wasn’t going to waste a second of it.

The knife glinted sinisterly in the sun, but Kokichi could only feel that it would bring him joy. The knife would be the lightest, most inculpable part of the entire interaction. It was just a knife, nothing more nothing less, it was Kokichi and Shuichi that would prove to be both more and less of everything they’d ever claimed to be. 

Kokichi stabbed himself. It wasn’t hard, and the cut was barely even bleeding, but Shuichi fussed over him all the same, and though Kokichi whined and heckled him, he appreciated the care. It had been so long, too long, since someone had genuinely shown any interest in helping him, and making sure he didn’t fall apart at the seams. Though Shuichi’s concern towards the “falling apart” was a tad more literal than it had been in the past.

Then Kokichi practically outright stated his affections to the person he held so dear, but that person didn’t seem to understand, and maybe it was that moment that made Kokichi no longer regret crushing his dear detective's trust.  
  


* * *

Tricking Gonta was easy. It was perhaps too simple, Kokichi almost felt like it should’ve been more difficult to get Gonta to go along with strangling Miu, even with the motive, but it was easy and so Miu was strangled. By toilet paper, of course, which was the one bit of humor Kokichi had allowed himself to add to the situation if only so he could remember not to lose himself.

Miu was found dead, and they left and Gonta had remembered nothing. Kokichi suspected he may be dumb enough to mess up the wires, and when he finally got the chance to look at the large man’s helmet he was excited to see that Gonta had, indeed, messed up the wires.

_ This’ll make the show more interesting, hopefully the audience won’t mind me making the ‘innocent’ one kill someone. Though I suppose they don’t really have a choice.  _

* * *

  
The trial was interesting, to say the least. The flowers seemed to be retracting even further, this time not because the object of his affection was losing feelings for someone else, rather because that person was falling in love. With Kokichi. It nearly made the purple-haired boy give up on the whole plan, nearly made him stop in his tracks and shut his mouth, to never tell another lie again. But then Kokichi remembered that if he did give up on this plan, it was only logical to assume the person who had caused the flowers would die. 

So he revealed the whole thing, revealed that Gonta killed Miu and that it was all his fault. It was all Kokichi’s fault. And of course, the others ate it up, anything to not have to face the idea that Gonta killed someone, anything to not have to face that another person had been killed by someone they trusted. 

Even Shuichi seemed more than happy to accept that it was all Kokichi’s doing. The moment he did, the flowers returned, tighter than ever before. Vines gripping his lungs for dear life, digging into the organ, and flowers creeping up through his throat until they came out in a cough.

The coughing fit Kokichi endured, for several minutes, did nothing to stop the distrust from his peers. Kokichi pretended it didn’t hurt him more than the flowers strangling him from the inside.

This time Gonta was the one they murdered, it was gruesome how he died, and though he tried not to, Kokichi could feel his insides tying themselves into knots. He was genuinely sad the man had died. For all Kokichi had used him, he had genuinely liked Gonta. Where others scowled at him, Gonta had smiled and offered to be his friend, even knowing how much Kokichi would use him. A part of him wished someone would remember how close they’d been and would come to comfort him even despite what he’d done.

No one comforted Kokichi this time either. And perhaps that was the true point of no return.

* * *

He was in an exisal. He was sitting in a robot designed to kill, and he was dying. Petal after petal kept falling from his mouth, blood coming with them. It was funny, in an ironic way, that everyone was terrified of his plans to kill them, while he sat there, dying alone and, of course, untrusted. Unloved.

During the times when the flowers seemed to calm down, he would work tirelessly putting his plan into motion. Kaito was trappedand was contacting every single one of the others, thinking Kokichi had no clue. He very much had a clue, but he acted like he didn’t.

Soon enough Maki came to his rescue, the knight in shiny armor saving her damsel in distress. The arrow pierced him and for a moment he thought he felt the flowers loosen, as though the person he had been caring for this whole time was feeling sorry for him, but then the pain of the arrow distracted him and all he could do was try desperately to remember the plan.

He pretended to drink the poison, then gave it to Kaito. He gave the script to the other, threw away his shirt, and explained the final part of his plan. The jacket was laid out for him, and when Kaito placed the now unable-to-walk Kokichi on it, it felt like a bed of flowers. A final resting place.

“One… l-last thing,” Kokichi said, feeling like he had to say something, like he had to tell someone who had caused the flowers, who had caused him so much pain again and again, and yet who he could not bring himself to hate. “Sh-Shuichi. He’s… h… the one, wh-wh-who made the…. f-flowe-flowers. Tell… him… please?”

Kaito tensed for a moment, reminding Kokichi that all of this must be taxing on him as well, he’d been thrown into this situation with little to no warning and though he’d be a murder he’d also be just as much a victim as the rest of them. Finally, Kaito managed to reply, “I will. If that’s what you want.”

The astronaut took his place by the button, and as Kokichi stared at the press the flowers wracked his body with coughs, he couldn’t stop the flowers from coming again and again and again. For a moment Kokichi thought this was like a game, which would kill him first, a hydraulic press he’d inflicted upon himself essentially, or flowers that had wrapped around his lungs and were only there because he’d been stupid enough to fall in love during a killing game?

This time Kokichi wanted the flowers to be the one to do him in, he wanted the flowers, the only thing of his crush, of Shuichi, that he still had left to hang on to, to be the thing that finally destroyed him.

And this time, he got what he wished for.

* * *

Kaito told Shuichi, once he’d been found out, all because of a single bloody petal he’d failed to clean up that the master detective had managed to spot, claiming it appeared halfway through the video. He told Shuichi that he was the one to cause Kokichi’s disease, that in the end, he was probably what had killed the liar. And then Kaito was killed by his own disease, coughing blood but no flowers and everyone cried and cried and cried.

Shuichi cried because Kokichi’s plan had failed. He cried because he hadn’t gotten to know the other boy at all. He cried because he wished, so desperately, that he would’ve listened a little closer to the things Kokichi had said. He cried because he felt like it was all over now, he felt like that had been the grande finale, the closing act, and it had all been for nothing.

Shuichi wished that it hadn’t been Kokichi who had died, that it been none of them. He wished that he’d comforted Kokichi during the time they’d all been grieving. He wished that he’d paid closer attention to the boy. He wished that he had been able to stop Kokichi from ever putting his plan into action. He wished he could’ve had the time to return his feelings. He wished he could’ve had the time to love Kokichi.

And for the first time, when none of what he’d wished happened, he understood Kokichi. He understood the scared, small, fragile little boy.

**Author's Note:**

> Just gonna slide in and say it didn’t say Shuichi’s name when Kokichi was referring to who he had a crush on cause he was still refusing to admit it. Just wanted to say that, since I know I wouldn’t have gotten that if I read it, I’m a tad dry brained.
> 
> Also if anyone is interested in joining a cool discord server cult/diy religion thing, here’s a link. https://discord.gg/3Dh3Sf6 (you may have to just copy paste it lmao) It doesn’t have anything to do with Danganronpa but it’s still pretty rad. I highly suggest you join.


End file.
